CRESSON, Pa. – Clarion has used a tried and true formula for winning games in the PIAA playoffs.
Rewatch the game
Pitch fast, throw strikes, and let your defense do the work while finding ways to score runs.
That worked to near perfection again Monday on a wet, soggy, cold, and windy day at Mount Aloysius College, as the Bobcats advanced to the PIAA Class 1A title game for the second time in their history with a 3-0 win over District 5 champion Southern Fulton.
“It feels wonderful,” Clarion manager Rob Jewett said. “It feels great for me. I can’t even imagine how my players feel like, they are the ones who put in the hard work. To get back (to the state title game) is not an easy task. And the road we took was not easy. That team across there was a heck of a team, very well coached. But the boys, they stuck it out, they gutted it out. I’m so proud of them. I’m so proud of our fans for traveling. It’s been an awesome experience so far. The job is not finished.”
How did it feel to his players?
Surreal was a word star junior shortstop Dawson Smail used.
“It’s surreal,” Smail said. “I really don’t know how to feel. I haven’t felt a feeling like this before in all of the baseball I have played. There is no one I would rather do it with than this group of guys. We just grinded out a hell of a game today. And you know, we are not done. We are not done.”
It started, as it has throughout the PIAA playoffs, with pitching. And that means it started with Devon Lauer.
Lauer, starting his third consecutive PIAA playoff game went four solid innings for the Bobcats allowing four hits and two walks while striking out two to get the win.
Derek Smail then came in, the first pitcher other than Lauer to throw an inning in the PIAA portion of the postseason for the Bobcats, and went three innings of two-hit ball to get the save, He walked three but struck out four.
The combined shutout ran Clarion’s scoreless innings streak to 18 straight innings, including all 15 in the PIAA postseason.
“Knock on wood right now, don’t you jink me,” Jewett said. “They are lights out. We have a game plan, and they stick to it. We throw strikes, and we trust our defense. And the defense backed them up again today. Mix it up just enough, hit the corners. They do a tremendous job.”
Jewett wasn’t sure what he was going to get from Lauer after the junior threw 110 pitches last week in two wins, including 66 in a 10-0, five-inning quarterfinal win over Saegertown Thursday.
And Lauer might not have had his best stuff, but he used some luck (a 403-foot bomb by Southern Fulton slugger Dane Harvey went for a two-out first-inning double because it was 404 to center at Mount Aloysius instead of for a home run in almost every other park), some guile (he picked off Mark Fitz in the second inning after Fitz walked to lead off the inning), and he trusted his defense in a big spot when he got pinch hitter Austin Mann to fly out to centerfielder Bryce Brinkley with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth of what was a scoreless game at the time.
“Devon came in not feeling 100%,” Jewett said. “I was iffy starting him, but he gutted it out good. I said give me three, he gave me four. It was perfect.”
With Jewett believing Lauer was down for the day, he turned to his fireballing righty sophomore Derek Smail, and despite a couple of fits of wildness, Smail was able to keep the Southern Fulton bats at bay.
Smail did have to pitch out of a two-out bases-loaded jam in the sixth with the Bobcats ahead 2-0, but he was able to get leadoff man Kasey Fitz to lineout to Brinkley in center, and then he put Southern Fulton down in order in the seventh to secure the win.
Watch Derek Smail get Jett Burger to ground out to his brother, Dawson, at shortstop to send Clarion to the state championship game.
“Derek threw three solid innings,” Jewett said. “He kept his composure. It was like I wrote it up. But they did it. I am really proud of them.”
Clarion needed its pitching to be spot on again because the offense that had been so potent through the first two rounds of the PIAA playoffs scoring 25 runs (30 in its past nine innings) struggled to come up with the big hit early on Monday.
The Bobcats loaded the bases against Southern Fulton starter Ethan Mellot in the first inning with no one out on two walks and a Brinkley single.
But Mellot struck out Derek Smail looking, got Lauer to ground back to the mound with the throw coming to the plate, and then struck out Tanner Miller looking to end the threat.
Clarion threatened again in the third with back-to-back walks to lead off the inning.
Mellott went 3-1 on Brinkley and then pointed to his shoulder and was taken out of the game. Freshman Owen Oakman replaced him and walked Brinkley (the walk was charged to Mellott) before walking Noah Harrison, a rarity considering Oakman had walked just one batter all season coming into the game.
But the threat quickly dissipated when Brinkley was thrown out trying to steal third, Derek Smail struck out looking against, and Lauer flew out to center.
“Things happen,” Jewett said. “It’s been going our way lately, so I figured some of those things would happen. It was more about keeping the mental aspect of it. Trying not to let it drain us.”
Clarion, though, just coming, and the Bobcats had lady luck on their side in the fourth inning when they finally broke through.
The inning started when Miller chopped a ball toward third, and Burger charged and threw. But the throw was wide of the bag, and Miller took second on the throwing error after getting credit for an infield single.
Watch Miller reach on the chopper
Miller was nearly picked off second with Matt Alston at the plate as he went a quarter of the way toward third on a failed bunt attempt. But Miller somehow scampered back to the bag safely.
Watch Miller get back in safely
Next up was Matt Alston, who hit a ball up the middle that second baseman Hank Ward was able to stop just to the first base side of the second base bag. But Ward couldn’t get Alston at first, and Clarion had runners on the corners with no one out.
Watch Alston beat out the infield single
Alston then stole second without a throw, but a base-running blunder by the Clarion nearly derailed the inning on a ball hit to shortstop by Daunte Girvan.
Thinking Miller would break for the plate on Girvan’s ball, Alston immediately took off for third. The only problem was Miller was still standing at third.
A rundown ensued with Miller at one point breaking toward the plate before getting back into third, and Alston somehow scrambled back into second loading the bases with no outs again for Clarion.
Watch the play
“I don’t know if that was ultimately our best game,” Jewett said. “We made some mistakes. But, you know what? We stuck in it. We grinded it out, and good things happen to good teams.”
This time with the bases loaded and no outs, Clarion was able to find a way to manufacture two runs.
First, Hayden Weber grounded to second on an 0-2 pitch with the middle infield at double play depth and beat the rap at first with Miller scoring leaving runners at the corners with one out. That ground out only came after Weber caught a break when his pop-up in foul territory behind first base fell harmlessly to the ground just out of the reach of Harvey, the first baseman.
Watch Weber get the eventual game-winning RBI.
Dawson Smail followed with a line drive to right that was caught but went in the book as a sac fly when Alston came home giving Clarion a 2-0 lead.
“On that at-bat, (Weber) fouled out in foul territory, and they missed it,” Dawson Smail said. “We capitalized on their errors a lot. (Weber) is having a great season.”
Dawson Smail was right in the middle of an important insurance run for Clarion in the sixth innings.
With one out, Girvan singled to center, and, with two outs, stole second.
Smail got behind in the count 0-2, took a ball, and then went the other way into the left-center field gap for an RBI single that fell just out of the reach of the left fielder Levi Souders.
Watch Smail’s RBI single
“That felt great,” Dawson Smail said. “I am sure Derek was happy as a pitcher, especially with their two, three, and four hitters up (in the seventh). It was the last inning we were going to hit, hopefully. So, I just wanted to put the ball in play and make it tough for the defense to capitalize on
Watch Dawson Smail’s full postgame interview
Clarion will play the winner of the DuBois Central Catholic vs. Dock Mennonite game in the PIAA championship game at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 15, at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on the campus of Penn State University in University Park (State College), Pa.
“We just have to play our game and can’t let it be too big,” Jewett said. “It’s a beautiful stadium. You get to feeling the jitters. We just have to come out composed, and just play our game, and, hopefully, good things can happen.”
NOTES: The game started at 3:48 p.m. after a 1 hour, 48-minute rain delay and lasted just over 2 hours, 20 minutes … The wind was gusting throughout the contest, and at one point knocked Lauer’s hat off his head … Rain misted at times throughout the early and mid portions of the contest as well … Paid attendance was 276 with 211 tickets scanned.
